In addition to making this post on my personal blog, I also ran the post at my space here at The Chronicle.

Here are some of the responses I got at The Chronicle—

TexasLiberal, why are you afraid to tell the truth. Hardly anyone is against immigrants coming into our country, Yes, there is a very small minority of people that don’t want any immigrants allowed in the US and to me those people are wrong. Most people are against those who are ILLEGALLY coming here and sucking up resources, whether it is schools, health care, food stamps, etc. But at least they do come here rob/kill others allowed to sit in prison for awhile. Do you know the difference between immigration and ILLEGAL immigration?? It really is so simple that even a Liberal should know

I’m proud to say that I signed the petition, got all my family and friends to do the same. Something has to be done about them. Time to put America first. They don’t like their country…change it

Like any liberal truth is a problem for you. No one is suggesting going after immigrants. This is about illegals who are criminals since they are breaking the law by being here. It is time to force our city leaders to do what they are suppose to be doing and that is rounding these criminals up, putting them in prison, and then deporting them.

It is in fact fully reasonable to make a distinction between people here “legally” as we term it, and someone who came here in a way that the law does not allow.

It is fair to say that making such a distinction does not by definition make a person anti-immigrant.

And yet–of course–this is a nuance that gets lost in these type of anti-immigrant efforts.

Here are some recent updates from the Stop The Magnet Facebook page. Stop The Magnet are the folks running this campaign. You can see the articles they linked to by clicking the link in each line.

It can be said that the issues that are being proposed for Houston voters are about so-called illegal immigration, and yet here we read about French President Sarkozy saying that France has “Too many foreigners.”

“7- 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

No good fruit can come from this tree.

A diverse and multi-cultural Houston and America are here to stay. Anybody fighting this fact has already lost.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I saw people of different races signing the petition. It’s not a simple matter of white, black or Hispanic.

It’s about fear and resentment in contrast to optimism, and against a future that is already on the way and that will make our nation a better place to live.

Since I ran a few Chronicle comments taking issue with my view, allow me to excerpt one that took my side–

“… The underlying animus in the anti-immigrant crowd is hate, which is a result of fear. Time and again in this country, in times of economic hardship, immigrants have been targeted. “Roundin’ up all them illegals and deportin’ ’em all back to Mexico” is unrealistic. It would also undermine law enforcement in that undocumented immigrants would fear reporting crimes, including serious ones…”